20th Sunday in Ordinary Time C.  August 19, 2007.  Our Lady of Grace 7:30, 11:30. 6PM.  Jeremiah 38:4-6, 8-10.  Hebrews 12: 1-4.  Luke 12: 49-53.

Have you ever seen the picture of the laughing Jesus?  I like the picture and I like to think that Jesus laughed.  Most of us have seen pictures of our grand parents or great grandparents with great frowns on their faces.  There was a time when people did not smile on official portraits and photographs.  Now whenever we take someone’s picture we ask them to smile.  When they don’t smile we take the picture again and again until they do.

I have been asked why Jesus looks so unhappy on our new Good Shepherd icon.  It may be that the need to have Jesus smiling all the time is something that our own desire for smiling people on pictures has created.  Carrying a lost sheep home certainly was a reason for joy.  Yet, a Shepherd who risks his life for a lost sheep while leaving unguarded the other sheep he had left behind may look very distressed, concerned and tired.  An always smiling Jesus may be a very shallow Jesus.  Today’s gospel invites us to look at Jesus in a different way.

Jesus said, “Do you think that I have come to establish peace on the earth?  No, I tell you, but rather division.  From now on a household of five will be divided, three against two and two against three; a father will be divided against his son and a son against his father, a mother against her daughter and a daughter against her mother, a mother-in- law against her daughter-in-law and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law.”

Popular legend says that Jesus was always tender and never offended anyone.  He was so gentle that everyone flocked to hear him.  Some religious art depicts him as an anemic, sanguine and effeminate person – an image that most men and women would find offensive if applied to them.

Jesus was always loving, but Jesus wasn’t always nice. Often his words were strong and even offensive. Jesus said:

"Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs which on the outside appear beautiful, but inside they are full of dead men's bones and all uncleanness. “(Matthew 23:27)  

Jesus said, “You brood of vipers – poisonous snakes, how can you, being evil, speak what is good?  (Matthew 12:34)

Jesus said, “You come from your father, the devil, and you desire to do what your father wants you to do. The devil was a murderer from the beginning. He has never been truthful. He doesn't know what the truth is.”  (John 8:44)

We live in a very tolerant world.  Telling people the truth is often regarded as bad manners.  Big Bird or Barney would never get crucified.  Remember the words to Barney’s song:

I love you

You love me

We're a happy family

With a great big hug

And a kiss from me to you

Won't you say you love me too?

Love that is not based on telling and living the truth is not love at all.  It takes great courage to speak the truth with love and to live the truth with a willingness to die in witness to the deep love we have for those we seek to lead to the truth.  Tolerance is a great virtue that allows us to live together in a society of many different points of view.  Yet tolerance without a commitment to speak and live the truth as we see it becomes a kind of mush into which society sinks and in which it eventually drowns.

It is very difficult to smile when you are being crucified for telling and living the truth.  Jesus came to bring us peace – not a peace based on pleasure or wishy-washy values, but a peace based on a commitment to the truth.  The sanctity of human life from conception to natural death is a value worth suffering for.   The dignity of the human person and the sanctity of marriage are values worth suffering for.   The rights of the poor and racial justice are values worth suffering for.   Tolerance without truth in these and many other areas leads not to peace, but to the destruction of the very framework of society.

Jesus said, “Do you think that I have come to establish peace on the earth?  No, I tell you, but rather division.  From now on a household of five will be divided, three against two and tow against three; a father will be divided against his son and a son against his father, a mother against her daughter and a daughter against her mother, a mother-in- law against her daughter-in-law and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law.”

The Letter to the Hebrews says: “Consider how Jesus endured such opposition from sinners in order that you may not grow weary and lose heart.  In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding blood.”

For the grace and the courage to speak and live the truth we give God thanks and praise.